California State Parks

Not a whole lot is known about Maj. Gen. Anthony Jackson‘s brief tenure with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, but we can say one thing with a fair degree of certainty: the man has standards when it comes to food.

A public records request for information about Pescadero Marsh, where nearly two decades of fish die-offs have generated controversy, turned up an offbeat detail about Jackson’s visit to the wetland back in May 2013. While arranging the fact-gathering trip to the San Mateo County estuary, Jay Chamberlin, the Sacramento-based head of State Parks’ Natural Resources Division, shared a critical piece of information with his staff about the man they all referred to as “the General.”

“One caveat: The General does NOT do sack lunches,” Chamberlin emailed the leaders of the San Mateo Coast sector. “So hopefully we can schedule in a dash into Pescadero to grab some sandwiches, etc.” Continue Reading →

You’d think the California Department of Parks and Recreation would leap at the chance to rescue animals in distress, but nothing is quite that simple when it comes to Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve.

The department has long resisted urgent measures to prevent near-annual fish die-offs at its marsh, where more than 1,280 federally threatened steelhead trout have gone belly up since 1995. The agency’s philosophy, maligned by residents of the tiny coastal town, is to allow natural processes to occur whenever possible. State Parks says it’s unclear whether the kills are harming the overall steelhead population in the estuary.

That stance has put State Parks at odds with two wildlife agencies charged with protecting the steelhead: the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA Restoration Center, a division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Emails and documents obtained under the Public Records Act shed new light on the mindset of State Parks managers and the divide separating them from the community and their bureaucratic partners.

The fish kills occur most winters, caused by anoxic, or oxygen-depleted, water that builds up in the southern reaches of the marsh and surges toward the lagoon when storms arrive.

In 2013, water quality in the lagoon deteriorated earlier than usual. A UC Berkeley biologist studying the steelhead grew worried in May upon seeing dozens of post-spawning adults swimming near the sandbar underneath the Highway 1 overpass.

The biologist, Eric Huber, asked Fish and Wildlife for permission to rescue the fungus-covered fish, fearing they would soon die.

“A large proportion of the 2013 spawning population is likely trapped behind the sandbar,” Huber wrote. “Without intervention, this spawning population might be lost altogether.”

NOAA and Fish and Wildlife spearheaded the rescue on June 28, 2013, scooping up 54 steelhead and releasing them into the Pacific Ocean.

State Parks permitted NOAA and Fish and Wildlife to conduct the operation, but internal emails show how reluctant that decision was. One of the agency’s environmental scientists in Sacramento dismissed the event as a “non-science-based, feel-good rescue.” Half Moon Bay-based environmental scientist Joanne Kerbavaz, who helps oversee the marsh, made light of the effort in an email to a supervisor in Sacramento, State Parks natural resources chief Jay Chamberlin.

“I would like to help out, if only so they can’t say we weren’t cooperative,” Kerbavaz wrote to Chamberlain on July 26. “But I’m not sure I want to be that supportive. Ideas?”

“Maybe you can show up late, (feigning) allergies or a stubbed toe,” Chamberlin responded, “then generally look helpful but avoid actually contributing due to your ‘injury’?”

In a recent interview, Chamberlin and State Parks spokeswoman Vicky Waters emphasized the emails represent a fraction of the discussions the agency had both internally and with its wildlife partners about the fish rescue. Chamberlin said the tone of the emails reflects the natural skepticism of scientists, who are supposed to ask questions and challenge hypotheses.

But the exchange was part of a pattern. State Parks managers come across in emails as exasperated — besieged by critical news reports and the resentment of locals, by pressure from the wildlife agencies, and by what they regard as unscientific proposals for dealing with the fish kills.

In a 2013 email, for instance, Paul Keel, manager of State Parks’ San Mateo Coast sector, bemoaned the “local mythology and poison” surrounding the marsh, which the agency claims is far healthier than locals portray it to be.

A panel of scientists is studying the marsh, and expected to release recommendations for managing the wetlands in the next couple months. Perhaps it will serve as an antidote — to the noxious water in the marsh and the poisoned relationships between State Parks and other stakeholders.